Jobs, raises, bonuses part of UAW-Fiat Chrysler deal

The UAW national council has approved a tentative agreement with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles that sets a clear path to full wages for entry-level workers while promising not to outsource work over the four-year pact. It also provides more detail, plant by plant, on jobs and future product changes. Net result: about 100 additional jobs.

“We returned to the bargaining table with Fiat Chrysler with a clear mandate for us to negotiate a contract that gives all employees a clear and defined path to a fair pay and decent standard of living,” UAW President Dennis Williams said during a news conference Friday. “I can say now that we now have secured a stronger contract.” Under the new agreement entry-level workers will see their hourly pay increase from $15.78 to $19.28 per hour to $29 over a period of eight years. The contract workers rejected a week ago would have only taken workers up to a top wage of $25.35 per hour, a wage that many workers viewed as falling short of promises made by the union and the company in 2011.

If ratified by union members, the new agreement also provides entry-level workers with a $3,000 signing bonus and longtime workers with a $4,000 signing bonus and provides longtime workers with 3% pay increases in the first and third years of the contract and 4% lump sum payments in the second and fourth year of the contract. The two sides also have agreed to meet within 60 days to revisit complaints about alternate work schedules that are hard on workers’ health.

“I think this will pass,” said Art Schwartz, a retired director of General Motors labor relations. Asked how the union could enforce wage provisions in years beyond this contract, Schwartz said, “Well, the union has this in writing now.” For the most part, workers were embracing the new contract on Friday.